Look credsticks and sleeping pods in Japan

[Don Coyote]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13216267

Ama Chan is aiming her mobile at small, square, printed, barcode tattoo that resembles a splattered space invader.

You will find their like plastered all over Japan. This one is printed on a Tokyo bus stop, so she clicks the camera shutter and peers happily at the result.

Her prize? A timetable appears instantly on the phone's screen, plus the estimated arrival time of the next bus.

When the oddly retro-style bus arrives, she uses her phone to pay by swiping at the front as a Londoner might flutter an Oyster smartcard on entering the Tube.

With the right clam-shell, iridescent "keitai", subscribers get a seriously high-resolution camera, a projector, and the all-important radio chip that works as a train/air/entrance ticket/boarding pass.

This radio tag can also check you into hotels and even open the room's door for you.

They also act as e-wallets. With up to 50,000 yen credit siphoned into the phone, customers use it to buy groceries at convenience stores, pay the taxi driver and persuade Japan's ubiquitous vending machines to cough up.

Overnight stay

The county's hotel industry is also benefiting from a dash of hi-tech gloss. Check into the entirely swish 9h (nine hours) capsule hotel in Kyoto and you might experience the teched-up future of budget hotels.
9h pod Guests at the 9h capsule hotel in Kyoto can relax in super hi-tech 'pods'

Ultra-futuristic, the Kubrick-inspired pods go for about 4000 yen a night via their website.

Kyoto might be rich in heritage but this doesn't stop it over-dosing like the rest of urban Japan on hi-tech treats. For evidence, visitors might want to check out the phone chargers available in even the most venerable temples.

The futuristic travel experience that 9h offers (perhaps a model for a Mars trip accommodation?) includes a pod, not a bedroom, with a "Sleep Ambient Control System", that "lulls to a comfortable sleep". The same system awakens guests with light, not an alarm clock.

Spartan, functional, but fun for a night.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

Augmenting city guides will not stop there. Something called "augmented reality" (AR) is already evolving into a valuable tool for travellers.

Augmented reality app Sekai Camera lets users hang "tags" that can be seen through an iPhone
Like the iPhone, such AR apps know where users are, and beam location relevant info to their phones. This is viewed superimposed on the camera viewfinder on the mobile's screen.

London already has Tube help in this form, while others such as Layar can perform the neat trick with restaurants, mentioned earlier.

Japan's version of this application, Sekai (World) camera, works the same magic, but adds tagging and social networking.

Like other AR apps it calculates your position, then using the camera, displays location-specific information graphically on top of your real-world view.

But the genius of Sekai Camera is that individuals and businesses can add their own information. They just point a smartphone camera at the landscape, adding "tags" that can include text, images, and sound that can be picked up by others in the area later.

Sorta feeling like the future has left America behind, in this respect. Augumented reality. Looking through your phone to see a whole new layer of social networking and information about your location. Maaaaaaan.

[Triple Zero]

Augmented reality is going to suck, they're just going to use it to plaster virtual advertisements on all naked surfaces everywhere.

Additionally, all of the stuff mentioned in these articles has horrible privacy implications.

Japanese have a completely different culture, maybe privacy's not as important to them?



Anyway, that's the choice you gotta make. Convenience in paying and bleeping and automatic payment as you enter public transport, the other price you pay is that there's going to be central computer databases that will save and store your every location anywhere and all purchases, forever.

Considering that the choice between "Convenience versus anything" is usually won by the former, I kinda wonder why it's not ubiquitous here yet.

But I'm in no particular hurry to get there, myself.

[Don Coyote]

I think it is part of their culture. They are rather crammed together in metropolitan areas too.

I also am in no hurry to have to augment my reality with technology in a manner that gives a clearer picture of just what I am doing every moment. Bad enough I make the bulk of my everyday purchases with my credit card.

[East Coast Hustle]

People don't realize that Wu-Tang meant the song to be taken VERY literally.

Cash rules everything around me.

[Jasper]

We haven't adopted this because we still have a powerful "man about town with a wad of bills" myth.  It is the unacquired proclivity of the American to feel good with hard cash in pocket.  We worship money just like any "civilized" culture, but we like to experience it.  We like how it looks in a hand.  It's concrete.

[Shibboleet The Annihilator]

Privacy issues aside, not having to carry a wallet, security card, car keys, and house keys would be pretty nice.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

We haven't adopted this because we still have a powerful "man about town with a wad of bills" myth.  It is the unacquired proclivity of the American to feel good with hard cash in pocket.  We worship money just like any "civilized" culture, but we like to experience it.  We like how it looks in a hand.  It's concrete.

Balls.  We use credit cards like there's no tomorrow.

I get weird looks when I go to pay for gas in cash up in Oro Valley.  I keep expecting them all to point at me and howl, like at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

[maphdet]

We haven't adopted this because we still have a powerful "man about town with a wad of bills" myth.  It is the unacquired proclivity of the American to feel good with hard cash in pocket.  We worship money just like any "civilized" culture, but we like to experience it.  We like how it looks in a hand.  It's concrete.

Balls.  We use credit cards like there's no tomorrow.

I get weird looks when I go to pay for gas in cash up in Oro Valley.  I keep expecting them all to point at me and howl, like at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

That is true, we do use cards a lot here in the States.
BUT-I for one, would rather have cash in hand. I've been stuck using a card for the last few years now and absolutely hate it. Would much rather have my daily cash in hand. But that's just me. Thought I'd share for whatever reason.

Also, WTF is "Sleep Ambient Control System" exactly?

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Also, our infrastructure isn't on par with Japan's or even some African nations... we're still trying to do much of our infrastructure on twisted pair

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Also, our infrastructure isn't on par with Japan's or even some African nations... we're still trying to do much of our infrastructure on twisted pair

We needed the money for tax cuts, so rich people could move our jobs to Singapore.

No more work worries!  That's way better than a modern communications/commerce system.

[LMNO]

Also, WTF is "Sleep Ambient Control System" exactly?

My guess is white noise and phase cancelling speakers.

[maphdet]

Also, WTF is "Sleep Ambient Control System" exactly?

My guess is white noise and phase cancelling speakers.

Ah, ok, thanks LMNO.


maph-
This shit reminds me of the Borg.    LoL
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/8111/9-h-nine-hours-capsule-hotel-in-kyoto.html

[frogsicle]

I'm just waiting for the first good outbreak of hacking such phones to hit the news...

[Don Coyote]

I'm just waiting for the first good outbreak of hacking such phones to hit the news...

AND SUDDENLY THERE WERE GIANT COCKS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!